


Books and Bros

by Anonymous



Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: Charlie’s friends aren’t the best in this, Hopeful Ending, Implied Relationships, M/M, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-11 13:45:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17448122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Charlie reflecting on his literary achievements and his choice of friends.Edit: I revised this so hopefully it’s better now





	Books and Bros

**Author's Note:**

> So I decided to write about charbitch in English the other day. I had to write a short story that flipped back and forth between present and past. It’s really played down because this was for school but I might revise it later to make it more obvious. Also I didn’t look over this that much so there might be a few mistakes sorry,
> 
> Edit: I rewrote some of it to make it more obviously about sunny and charbitch

Charlie browsed through the titles on the bookshelf, selecting one at random without even really thinking about it. He flipped through the pages, larger print and pictures flashing by, a perfect book to read. He wandered over to the couch and proceeded to curl up to read his new selection. He may not have known what one of the words on the cover was but that didn’t bother him too much. With the sun shining in through the window as a source of light he opened to the first page and began his reading. He only got a few pages into the story before a thought popped into his head. He hadn’t stumbled over any of the words yet. That thought shocked him. Sure for other people that’s not really much of an accomplishment but for him, who just two years ago couldn’t even spell his name properly, it was amazing.

 

It was a blustery December day when they had their first lesson. Charlie was getting nervous as he walked along the iced sidewalk towards the building where Emerson worked. No less nervous when he knocked on the door for the first time and Dr. Emerson Remington waved him in with a polite greeting. They went over the basics to see how much reading comprehension he actually had, and came away with the knowledge that he has dyslexia. Which in retrospect made a lot of sense.

“So what you’re saying is I’m not just stupid?” Charlie questioned. He looked up at the doctor then back down at the piece of paper where he’d written down the diagnoses. Emerson t gave him a disapproving over the glasses r glance while he continued writing down notes on his clipboard.

“I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you again, you are not stupid. Just because you haven’t been given the things you’ve needed or the help you deserved in the past doesn’t make you an idiot.” Emerson s rose from his chair to walk around his desk and stand next to where charlie was sitting. He placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and continued in a consoling voice, “And I’ve told you that I’m here to help you now and I mean it. I know you can pull ahead of this is you try hard enough.”

 

Charlie caught himself smiling when he was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of his phone buzzing. He shifted around so he could reach into his pants pocket and pull out his phone, checking n the caller id as he lifted it to his ear.

“Hey dude! You’ll never guess what just happened,” Charlie began as soon as he hit the answer button. “So like, I’m just sorta chilling you know? Then I’m like, Hey! Why don’t I read something? I’m not doing anything. And like I pick up a book and I just start reading it, dude it was crazy I didn’t even think about it. And then I was just reading? Like casually? And I didn’t even have to stop and think about the words.”

“Oh... yeah, that’s great dude,” Mac’s answering voice responded dismissively. Rushing on to his point, “but I just called cause I need to kno-”

Charlie kind of spaced out at that point. He knew his friends maybe weren’t the best of people but he still hoped they would care about his accomplishments more. But he was used to his thoughts and ideas getting pushed to the side so he wasn’t really that surprised by the reaction he just got. His friends had never thought he could achieve all that he had over the years, they never believed in him.

 

Charlie was ecstatic, today was the day he was finally going to tell his friends about what he’d really been up to all those times he disappeared every week. He was going to tell them all about how he’d been working with this doctor Emerson guy, and they were going to be so proud of him. He bounced up onto the doorstep and pounded excitedly on the door before rushing in without waiting for an answer. He found Mac and Dennis spread about the living room, lounging on furniture watching some kind of sports match.

He cleared his throat to announce his presence before marching into a spiel of everything he’d been doing for the past three months. Explaining how he has this thing called ‘dyslexia’ and that’s part of why he was also so bad at reading and writing, how he’s come so far in such a short amount of time because he was working with this great guy that helped him understand everything. He flourished a piece of paper from behind his back and tossed it onto the table in front of them, announcing proudly how he had written the writing on it all by himself. How he was actually writing one note to himself everyday to help him improve even more. He was still part way through his rant when Dennis picked up the letter and studied it with scrutiny.

“Who’d you even get to write this?” He stared down at the paper suspiciously, “You actually pay someone? Cause that seems a bit much for you, to be that elaborate.”

Charlie’s face dropped. His demeanor changing from upbeat and happy to sinking into a slouch, arms pulled to his sides no longer gesturing wildly.

“No way you actually expect us to believe you wrote this du-“

 

“-ude! Dude! Are you even listening?” Mac’s voice from the phone rang out into his ear.

“Ah yeah, I’m listening,” Charlie lied, “you want… something? so you can go do… that thing?” Even Charlie winced at his words. “Look dude I’m actually kind of busy right now so I’m gonna have to call you back later.” He hung up the phone without waiting for an answer and shoved his phone back in his pocket.

“Who cares what he wants,” Charlie mumbled to himself, “He doesn’t care what I’m doing so I don’t care what he’s doing.” He picked his book back up to continue reading but was interrupted by the notification of a text. He almost didn’t bother to look at it, but decided it was probably best to just in case it was actually someone else. Which it turned out to be, the scientist actually. Not one of his so called ‘friends’ but someone who he knows cares. A smile crosses his face as he quickly unlocks his phone to respond. Maybe his old friends don’t appreciate him the way they should but he knows he’ll get more friends, better friends to help him along in life. Like the one he just agreed to a lunch date with in an hour. He put his phone down on the table in front of him and curled up once more to finish his book.


End file.
